About believing in God as much as in love

I find it hard, in some ways, to use the term 'believing' in connection with God because the 'idea' of God as the creator of all that exists, has always seemed to me to be totally self-evident. If I were to try to explain my awareness of the reality of God, I would say that it is similar to my awareness of the reality of love.

Love, however, is as hard to define and as mysterious as is the 'concept' of God. I believe in love because I have experienced being loved and feeling love, for family and friends; for nature too, and music, poetry and art, in all its many aspects.

Love, in its many forms, can "move mountains" and melt hearts of stone. I have looked at my young children and almost felt something leave me and reach out and attach itself to them in a tangible bond.

It is this love which seems to me to be the absolute manifestation of the love of God. This love is that which I see as powering the universe, from the heartbeat of the atom to the explosive power of the stars. I feel this love as I feel the warmth of the sun, and I see God in everything as I see by the light of the sun.

Non-believers will give utilitarian causes for the existence of everything and some even believe that love is a result of self-interest, another aspect of evolution, and that may even be partly true. I wouldn't profess to know all the secrets of that wondrous process.

However, nothing can explain to me the concept that this all started from nothing. To quote Shakespeare and The Sound of Music, as I have before in some post or other, ''Nothing comes from Nothing.''